The Big Impact of Little Women (2019)

Why We Should Talk About Greta Gerwig

When news first broke about the release of a 2019 adaptation of Little Women, a lot of the response I came across read along the lines of: Another one? Do we really need another Little Women?

Greta Gerwig’s new version is the seventh film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 classic novel, therefore many people figured the story of writer Jo March and her sisters had reached its full potential.

Being a 19th-century literature and period drama fan, I personally never tire of marriage plots and coming-of-age stories alongside the backdrop of civil war, but that being said, I partially understood the concern. The story is over 150 years old; how do you make it exciting for a 21st-century audience?

However, the moment I stepped out of the theatre, I knew that Greta Gerwig definitely proved her skeptics wrong. This film is immaculate. It really hits every note you could possibly want it to. Gerwig and the rest of the cast and crew do an excellent job of updating a story that seemed overdone to many. Many have called it the superior adaptation of Alcott’s work due to it’s fresh and original take.

The cast is a sublime cluster of talent that includes Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Timothée Chalamet, Laura Dern, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk and even Meryl Streep. Ronan is no stranger to period dramas, so evidently she shines as main character Jo. I would even go as far as to say that she is Jo March. I do enjoy Wynona Ryder’s portrayal of her in the 1994 version, but Ronan brings such sincerity to the part that it is difficult to believe you are watching a fictional character.

The four March sisters have great chemistry with one another, making the audience feel like they are at home with them as part of their family. Florence Pugh’s turn as Amy is particularly noteworthy, as she takes a generally unlikeable character and peels all the layers right down to her core. Her performance shows the complex transition from a mischievous young girl to a woman deeply frustrated with her society.

The biggest jump from the source material is the film’s timeline, where Gerwig takes Alcott’s linear narrative and splices it in pieces throughout, seamlessly jumping back and forth between 1861 and 1868. The hardships of the March family in the past are juxtaposed quite beautifully with their subsequent struggles in later years.

For her screenwriting efforts, Greta Gerwig was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (the only woman in the category) as well as Best Picture. Many reviewers believed she also deserved to be considered for Best Director, along with many other female filmmakers who were not nominated.

In recent years, the film industry has taken a lot of backlash for its lack of racial or gender diversity in its nominations, where the winning films often reflect the values of a select privileged population.

It’s not a shocker that the works of female creators have been overlooked since forever, but some members of the Academy took it upon themselves to specifically criticize Little Women. They labelled the timeline as confusing or openly disliked that the four main actresses were not American (as if that matters). A handful of male voters were reluctant to even see it.

Bob Odenkirk, who plays Father March, believed that Academy voters were prejudiced against the film, stating, “It’s a great piece of art and it will last, and it shouldn’t be held against it that it’s a classic. Greta should’ve been included in all those categories.”

Gerwig also commented on the matter, pointing out, “we very much have a hierarchy of stories. I think that the top of the hierarchy is male violence—man on man, man on woman, etc. I think if you look at the books and films and stories that we consider to be 'important,' that is a common theme, either explicitly or implicitly.”

Even if some Academy voters want to distance themselves from Gerwig’s Little Women, I certainly will not. I will probably watch it every year around Christmastime while sitting under a comfy blanket and drinking some hot cocoa. I think I will always have a persistent need to constantly be reacquainted with the distinctive charm of the March family.

This brings me back to the opening question: Did we need another Little Women? The short answer is no. But Greta Gerwig made us need it. And that, to me, is even more commendable.

So what do you think about the role of women in the media? Spill the tea, CULTURVERSERS.